Could've read it in the Spalding Guardian!

Here's an intriguing little article I found on the work Doyle did to find publication homes for 'The Sign of the Four'.

The article was published in the 'Spalding Guardian' on Saturday 25 July 1931, and describes a letter found in the newspaper offices from Conan Doyle, offering publication rights of 'Sign of the Four'. The anecdote was included in a section called 'A Lincolnshire Diary' with various interesting tid-bits, the author being 'The Diarist'.

The Spalding Guardian was based in the market town of Spalding, Lincolnshire. In 1890, the newspaper was titled 'The Spalding Guardian and Holbeach, Long Sutton, and Sutton Bridge Advertiser'. The newspaper does not appear to have purchased the option. 

Finally, one wonders whether the letter still lives in the newspaper archives!

Spalding Guardian, Saturday 25 July 1931

A MEMORY OF THE PAST. 

The late Sir Arthur Conan made a great name as a storyteller, and who is there who has not revelled in one or other of his varied books whether of the Sherlock Holmes type, the historical type such as Micah Clarke, or The White Company or indeed, any of his works? I well remember when, as a boy, I discovered "The Sign of Four," and read it with gusto from first page to last at one sitting. 

Rummaging through an old drawer in the "Guardian" office this week I came across a letter dated from Bush Villa, Southsea, and written on March 7th, 1890 — forty-one years ago. It is signed "A. Conan Doyle, M.D" and in it Dr. Conan Doyle, as he was then, offers "The Sign of Four" for publication in the columns of the Guardian as a serial story. 

AT A LOW COST

He explains in the letter that it is his intention to offer the story to several provincial papers for simultaneous publication, and that the fee he would charge the Guardian would be the modest one of ten guineas. In view of the enormous literary success which he subsequently made and the high prices which were paid by far-seeing editors for his work at a later date, this is remarkable evidence of his early struggles. At that time he was still practising as a medical man in Southsea, but as the world knows his speedy rise to fame soon enabled him to relinquish medicine in favour of letters.